[PD] (breaking symbols) was Re: find a list of numbers in a text file

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Sat, 10 Sep 2011, Martin Peach wrote:

>> Which other ways are you thinking about, apart from something that
>> behaves more or less like strtof ?
> OK, for example an object that converts names of numbers to floats:
> or binary to float:
> or imaginary numbers:
> or even some kind of [expr] that takes symbolic input:
> None of the above would work properly with a default symbol-to-float method. 
> Each needs to parse its input according to its own specific meaning-space.

So what's the problem with having an implicit cast that does the strtof 
that people want in 99,99 % of the cases, and still be able to use 
explicit means to convert things like MCMLXXVIII to float in whichever way 
you like ?

It's not about all-encompassing conversions, it's about defaults.

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